art, darwin and evolutionary psychology in the new republic

“Art, then, can be defined as the calisthenics of pattern-finding…(Boyd) is proposing a direct link between art and fitness: the more art we experience, the more likely we are to survive and to reproduce. Art, in this model, is like a gym in which ‘we incrementally fine-tune our neural wiring through our repeated and focused engagement in each of the arts.’”

Yayoi Kusama, Fireflies on the Water, 2002